Tuesday, February 15, 2011

I love going out to eat. My vice is that my wife and I go out to eat all of the time. We are always looking for new places to try, and we use restaurant reviews to find out if we should try the restaurant or stay far away.

For this blog post, you are going to write a restaurant review. Use what we learned about writing a movie review, and the examples we looked at in class, to write a review for any restaurant you wish. I would encourage you to visit the restaurant so you can take notes and write an accurate review.

Friday, February 11, 2011

I enjoyed speaking with many of your parents during Parent-Teacher conferences. I also enjoyed meeting with you about your grades. I think we had great discussions, and hopefully you have some ideas on things to work on before the next time we conference.

I have been reading your movie review blog post, and I am honestly a bit disappointed that many of you did not complete this assignment. This is a type of persuasive writing, and something you may be asked to do often in your lifetime. Your future boss may ask you to review a new product, article, or idea and ask for your opinion about it. You need to be able to explain why it is a good or poor product. We will be reviewing more items this semester. This movie review was one practice for something yet to come (hint hint!).

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

For this blog post, locate one example of irony in the book up through Ch. 10.

1. Explain the situation from the book

2. Label the type of irony

3. Explain what Huxley is trying to say with the irony.

Example:

Explanation: In this world, the popular phrase is, "Everyone is happy now." Lenina repeats this over and over. There are no wars, poverty, violence or crime. It appears to be a perfect society or utopia.

However, this world is far from perfect. The people do not know true happiness. They are actually void of any emotion at all. They may say that they are happy, but they are not.

Situational Irony

Huxley's purpose: People can be conditioned to think or say certain things, even if they do not actually believe it. Huxley is also exploring the question: What does it mean to be happy? What is the true nature of happiness? Is it something you say? Something you feel? How do you attain true happiness?

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

After closely examining the examples of movie reviews in class, write your own movie review. It does not have to be a movie that you love. It could be a movie that you think is terrible (which could turn out to be a much better review than one that you really like).

Follow the examples of movie reviews that we looked at in class. If you want to look at other examples, feel free to do so.

Your opening paragraph should somehow hook the reader. Refer to the examples we discussed in class.